Wildcat’s projectsPolytopiaThe human species is rapidly and indisputably moving towards the technological singularity. The cadence of the flow of information and innovation in...The Total LibraryText that redefines...The great enhancement debateWhat will happen when for the first time in ages different human species will inhabit the earth at the same time? The day may be upon us when people...Now playingSpaceCollectiveWhere forward thinking terrestrials share ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction.IntroductionFeaturing Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, based on an idea by Kees Boeke.

Of course it is natural to augment reality, we do it with our eyes and brains ever since perception got, in a poetic sense, highjacked by our imagination.

A plethora of new apps are here to help us keep track of everything. Sharing and benchmarking are becoming the casual reality applications of our lives, making the quantified-self, the game changer that the concept claims to be. Designing the life you love and architecting your reality seen as a design problem and not a psychological or philosophical quest is where the crux of our times lay silently.
The sweet spot of interaction between people and technology resides in a very special place, maybe the new aesthetic but probably a self-aware map of tools and humans, making reality a new kind of platform. Does it make the story of our life an extraordinary experience or will it make us instruments of our own demise?

Exploring this question is I believe the most salient point of our current civilization for though we might be obsessed about the news of the moment be it the economy or the political scene, it is the actual pixelated deconstruction of our moment by moment immediate reality that may or may not bring about that cherished idea of a life well lived.

It used to be that a life well lived was the subject matter of philosophy and then of psychology, however it might be the case that as of now the same question has become one of design. Not design as in ‘design the life you love’ as some may desire to portray it but design in the literal sense of the objects and apps we use.
The design of objects and applications used daily by millions of people all over the world, submitting the benchmarks they attain (or do not attain) to a mostly anonymous crowd, invents, as it were a reality that is fundamentally augmented and shared to such an extent that for all practical purposes, it is not ‘ours’ anymore but is for all practical purposes a shared prototype of consciousness or indeed a consensual hallucination.

The implications are vast serious and probably under-emphasized, acts of self tracking and self monitoring are not only acts of extensibility of our minds into objects but also acts of self inflicting data upon our own subjectified self. In this process we may unwittingly, and to some extent unknowingly provide our minds with an alternative to self-reflection. In fact I am uncertain if indeed the apparent cohesion of what used to be an introspective process of self-knowing becoming externalized via the applications of monitoring and self-tracking devices, improves our lives or destroys a sense of fullness in which not everything is known.
—Some examples of modern tracking devices

“Breathe2Relax is a portable stress management tool. Built on the iPhone mobile app platform, Breathe2Relax is a hands-on diaphragmatic breathing exercise. Breathing exercises have been documented to decrease the body's 'fight-or-flight' (stress) response, and help with mood stabilization, anger control, and anxiety management. Breathe2Relax can be used as a stand-alone stress reduction tool, or can be used in tandem with clinical care directed by a healthcare worker.
Capitalizing on touch-screen technology, a user can record their stress level on a 'visual analogue scale' by simply swiping a small bar to the left or to the right. Breathe2Relax uses state-of-the-art graphics, animation, narration, and videos to deliver a sophisticated, immersive experience for the user.” (go here: breath relax)
-Other examples:

RunKeeper makes tracking your workouts fun, social, and easy to understand so that you can improve the quality of your fitness.
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Over at TedxSilkroad: “Patrice Slupowski, director of innovation at Orange France Telecom, quotes Ericsson's CEO who predicts 50 billion connected devices by 2015. With 3 billion expected Internet users, this means we will have 17 devices per connected people. By 2015, 3 years from now we will be carrying on us sensors and other devices that produce data. “

His presentation called: “The connected body” here below is a well worth watch, in a very poetic and French manner Patrice Slupowski, entices us to understand and accept the connected state of affairs through which he gets more sleep, looses weight, records the amount of steps he walks and shares the resulting data with his social networks.

The point as most of us are already acquainted with is that tracking; self-tracking in particular, allows a new kind of self-awareness, especially as relates to our health and fitness.
Put all this data in the cloud, (privacy not included) and personal medicine becomes a reality, tracking our mood, skin temperatures and the analysis of correlated data becomes a new picture we have of ourselves, and a new image we can project unto the world.

Of course that is only the beginning, new under the skin implant devices are coming our way faster than the speed of the click: :” Scientists at Toronto-based Autodesk Research and their colleagues tested a dozen or so different user interface implants. Input devices included microphones for audio; buttons, pressure sensors and tap sensors for input via direct touching of the skin; and brightness sensors and capacitive sensors — the kind now often found in mobile device touchscreens — for input through motions above the skin. Output devices they examined included audio speakers, LEDs, and vibration motors. Wireless communications were enabled using Bluetooth, and wireless recharging was tested with inductive chargers, the kind seen with cordless power tools. (Via the Txchnologist)
—

What about memory recall? Add to the above the sense cam from Microsoft: “SenseCam is a wearable camera that takes photos automatically. Originally conceived as a personal ‘Black Box’ accident recorder, it soon became evident that looking through images previously recorded tends to elicit quite vivid remembering of the original event.

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Some are already using this huge amount of data that is more meaningful than apparent, to create what may well be the personal information stock exchange,

“In a paper posted online last week, Huberman and coauthor Christina Aperjis propose something akin to a New York Stock Exchange for personal data. A trusted market operator could take a small cut of each transaction and help arrive at a realistic price for a sale. “ ( A stock exchange for your personal data- technology review)
—

A cloud of self-aware data that is what I believe will occur. An immense amount of data willingly offered, talking, transmitting, and exchanging bits and bytes with each context re-conceptualizing itself, re-describing itself as a new form of realism.

Hyperconnected bodies, transformed, metamorphosed, dynamically rewiring, our very yogic memory oscillations, playing the stock exchange of personal information, mutating, resuming, deconstructing and restructuring our thoughts, our moods, saying hello to each other and maybe waving to us on our way to a life well lived.

Are we part of this self aware-data cloud?

To some extent yes, though the connection will eventually become tenuous. As such it is my view that the self-aware cloud of information may be seen as the precursor to a global brain.
Such a global brain connecting bodies, objects, animals and extending all over the biosphere is a probability that bears an interesting account of our times.

(shortly to be continued)

Meanwhile, take a peek at this art installation, maybe a hint into a possible future self

“As two dancers moved around the perimeter of the installation, 3D cameras recorded the shapes made by their bodies and replayed them on a brass grid of over 10,000 LED lights.
The image created by the lights always resembles a single figure, no matter how many people approach it at once, but it can combine the movements of more than one body. All information recorded by the device passes through a computer, so it can also be played back with a time delay or saved to replay later. (See here: Future Self by rAndom International)

—

Links of Note & Reference :

* ARWave is a open source project to create a standard method for geolocating data on Wave servers. (ARWave)
*Lift your mood.

Clean your teeth, wash your face, measure your mood. A daily must-do.

Track your ups and downs on a graph to understand what gets to you.

Share your scores with trusted friends so they can support you. Everybody needs a buddy.
(Moodscope)

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SpaceCollective is a joint initiative of filmmaker Rene Daalder and designer Folkert Gorter. Daalder is the project's main author and creator of The Future of Everything. Gorter is the site's interaction designer and the curator of the Gallery. System architecture and technology created by Josh Pangell. The Future of Everything episodes are edited by Aaron Ohlmann and produced by American Scenes Inc; executive producer: Joseph Kaufman.